November 2010, Storm Log~

My name is Tighe Pedersen, otherwise known as Oogy.  I have been chasing storms ever since I was a teenager, going on ten years now.  That makes me the kid of the outfit: only 28 years old, just turned 28 back in August, only three months ago.

I have always held a deep fascination with storms.  When I hooked up with "Tornado" Joe Dorman and his merry band of chasers, I felt tevereed.  Awed.  Inspired.  These guys knew storms, inside and out, upside down and backwards, forwards, and ... well, you catch my drift.  LOL

I will never forget the first time I "bagged"(saw, or took pictures of)  a tor (tornado).  I felt like I was Warren Faidley ... or, perhaps, Jim Reed.  Or Reed Timmer.  Or even Tim Marshall.  They are what legends are made of: they have "the stuff" when it comes to chasing storms: these guys know how to do it, and do it well.  They are outstanding in their fields, and all chasers (or chaser-wannabes) aspire to be like them.

I am no exception.

Take, for instance, our recent trip from Fort Worth, Texas (where we live) to Nashville, Tennessee.  Last week, in fact.  Severe weather was likely in that part of the country: the ingredients were coming together for a possible severe weather outbreak.  And it lived up to its name.  Storms bubbled up just on top of the DFW metroplex, but as the combination dryline/cold front/warm front migrated eastward, the storms grew bigger, nastier. 

By the time they reached the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys, these storms were monsters: they were nothing to fool around with.

We knew we had to warn people ahead of time to keep abreast of the changing weather conditions ... and to keep them safe, out of harm's way.  We also relayed data to the NWS and the SPC (National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center, to you non-weather afficianados), where they, in kind, put out the necessary watches (and later, warnings).

Around mid-morning, most Tennesseans were already at work, going about their day, oblivious to the changing weather conditions outside their windows.  I knew that unless they knew that storms were on the way, there would possibly be injuries (or even some deaths) if they didn't take the necessary precautions before the storms.  By ten o'clock, conditions came together for both SPC and the NOAA offices to put out the necessary information, to alert people.  I was the one who called the Nashville NWS office to inform them of deterioating weather conditions.

Wall clouds were beginning to form.  It wouldn't be long before a funnel would start to snake down; if it made contact with the ground: tornado.  The watch for that immediate area would probably be upgraded to a tornado warning.  Hail was already playing a (not-so) merry tune on the hoods of our vehicles; I prayed that the hail wouldn't grow larger, so as to shatter windshields ... or bounce off our heads/bodies.  The winds were howling from the west, and the clouds reminded me of a witch's brew: a bubbling, roiling nightmare just waiting to devour unsuspecting towns ... or people, if they didn't take heed.  Now.

Eventually, the storms moved on, but not much in the way of tornado action in the immediate Nashville, Tennessee, vicinity (although funnels were sighted, and there were reports of wind damage throughout parts of the city).

I'm just grateful that nobody was killed in the immediate Nashville area, but east of there, a woman died when a tree fell on her car (*crunch!*), and several people were injured by flying debris or shattered glass when the winds busted out windows.  Other than that, I'd say the area where we were at when the storms struck fared quite well.  I whispered a prayer of thanks and gratitude to The Man Upstairs; it could have very easily been a lot worse.